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<title>21/02/20: nightmares by excelsi_or</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24324331">21/02/20: nightmares</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/excelsi_or/pseuds/excelsi_or'>excelsi_or</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>to a boy i love right now [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SEVENTEEN (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:20:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,019</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24324331</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/excelsi_or/pseuds/excelsi_or</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She wakes up to a nightmare and Jihoon helps her fall asleep.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>to a boy i love right now [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1252010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>21/02/20: nightmares</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Running through every door, she weaves through tables and around people. Every window is shut and jammed. She circles around and notes a small hallway that has a door. There’s stomping going on through the entire ship. The two people she’d run onto the ship with have scattered. It’s literally every man for himself.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Cold water... a window... the dock...</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Cops... death... screaming... </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Dead... dripping wet... eyes gouged out.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With a deep inhale, her eyes snap open. She looks around the dark bedroom. Behind her, she can hear Jihoon snoring softly. She pushes one of the extra blankets they’d been using last night off her to cool down and then tries to sleep again. But her mind keeps conjuring up those dead people with red eye sockets, some mouths open, all of them soaked in ocean water. The image is too vivid to let her sleep again.</p>
<p>So she rolls over to grab her phone. On her side, so that the light doesn’t affect Jihoon, she scrolls through social media.</p>
<p>Fifteen minutes turn to thirty, thirty to forty. And then Jihoon’s arm reaches for her and tugs her closer. This is the first time she’s been awake when he’s done this. She leans her back into his chest, curling into herself to keep the blue light of her phone away from his eyes.</p>
<p>“Are you awake?” he mumbles.</p>
<p>She looks back at him. His eyes are still closed. “Yeah,” she whispers, turning back around. “Had a nightmare. You sleep.”</p>
<p>The arm draped around her slips underneath her shirt and his hand rubs circles against her skin. “Nightmares?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just need to keep my mind off it.”</p>
<p>His voice doesn’t rise louder than a whisper. “Talk to me.”</p>
<p>“You have to go in early.” She pats his hand through her shirt. “It’s okay. Sleep, Ji.”</p>
<p>“I’m not tired anymore. See?” Jihoon opens his eyes wide and she can’t help but roll her eyes in response. She shuts off her phone and tosses it to the edge of the bed. Then she turns under his arm. His fingertips graze her spine, but not even that can calm her right now.</p>
<p>Jihoon notices how tense she is and looks down at her. The room is dark, but he can make out shapes. And he can see her eyes. She’s watching him, eyes on his face. “What?”</p>
<p>“Looking at you makes it easier to not think about the dream.”</p>
<p>“Ah.” His eyes close and he goes back to rubbing her back. “If that makes you feel better.”</p>
<p>They’re quiet for a while. While sleep tries to drag him under, he can’t feel her relaxing in his arms. “What’s keeping you awake?”</p>
<p>“The dead people.”</p>
<p>“Were you listening to your murder podcast again?”</p>
<p>“I stopped listening before bed after last time.”</p>
<p>She’s taken to tracing shapes on his chest and it’s making <em>him</em> drowsier. “I told you studying late would exhaust your brain <em>too</em> much.”</p>
<p>“Midterms and lab reports.”</p>
<p>“Well, it’s Saturday tomorrow. You have all day to study for it.”</p>
<p>“Easy for you to say.”</p>
<p>Jihoon knows. Music always came easy to him. While he had to pull late nights during school, he knew that even if his knowledge didn’t transfer well to paper that the music he was producing would make up for most bad grades. It doesn’t work quite so well in a science degree.</p>
<p>“Study until I get home and then we have that party at Seungcheol hyung’s house. You can relax then.”</p>
<p>She sighs. Whatever she’d been doing had clearly not put her to sleep. It was putting Jihoon to sleep instead. Her arm wraps around him and she squeezes him tighter, her cheek against his chest. He can imagine her forcing her eyes closed, trying to get whatever images in her head out of there.</p>
<p>“You have a fast heartbeat,” she comments.</p>
<p>“Do I?”</p>
<p>“Weird since you sound like you’re going to pass out.”</p>
<p>“Mm.”</p>
<p>Sighing, she starts to wiggle away from him. “I can’t sleep. I’m gonna—”</p>
<p>“If you get up, you’ll never get to sleep.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to keep you up though,” she whines.</p>
<p>“I don’t mind. Come back here. Tell me about the dream.”</p>
<p>“No, you hate when I talk about stuff like it.”</p>
<p>“Jagi, you need to sleep too if you’re going to study all day tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Reluctantly, she shares the dream, starting with a car chase scene. When she’s through, Jihoon’s pretty awake.</p>
<p>She gauges his expression and rests her forehead against his chest. “Told you, you wouldn’t like it.”</p>
<p>“Well… it makes sense why you can’t sleep.”</p>
<p>She moves higher on the pillow so they’re face-to-face. Her breath is warm over his skin. Gently, he covers her shoulder with the blanket. He has moved the second layer onto his side. While he prefers being warm, he’s learning that she gets restless in her sleep if she’s too warm.</p>
<p>Now he understands that it’s likely nightmares.</p>
<p>“How often do you get nightmares?”</p>
<p>“Happens more in the winter.” She stretches her right arm over her head and then drops it between them. “And your apartment isn’t as temperature controlled as ours.”</p>
<p>“You mean Gyu likes it warm.”</p>
<p>“Seungkwanie lets me leave it cold at night.”</p>
<p>“Should we sleep at your place until spring?” Jihoon runs his hands up and down her skin, this time her side. The talking seems to be soothing her, because he can feel her relaxing under his touch.</p>
<p>She shakes her head. “You like your bed too. Spring’s almost here anyway.”</p>
<p>“But—”</p>
<p>“This is my first nightmare in a while.”</p>
<p>He doesn’t tell her that he pulls the blanket off her when she gets restless at night.</p>
<p>“I’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>Jihoon decides to leave her be. He lifts his arm to invite her closer, hearing her words slurring. She scoots closer, an arm slipping over his side. He breathes deeply, another trick he’s learned works with her. Eventually, her breathing evens out.</p>
<p>All Jihoon remembers before falling asleep is pressing a kiss to her head and the face of Will Smith with his eyes gouged out.</p>
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